Exploring Tourist-Consumer Heterogeneity: Food-Related and Sustainability Dimensions Across Multidimensional Profiles

Food-related, environmental, informational, experiential, and decision-related dimensions may be configured differently across tourist-consumers, yet less attention has been paid to their joint configuration within broader tourist-consumer profiles and to the roles of food-related and sustainability dimensions within these configurations. This study addresses this gap by examining these dimensions jointly within a single exploratory, profile-oriented framework, with particular attention on how food-related and sustainability dimensions are positioned within the resulting multidimensional configurations. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted among 656 adult Italian consumers recruited in Campania. Principal Component Analysis was used for data reduction, and the resulting component scores were analysed using K-means Cluster Analysis. The analysis identified thirteen components explaining 64.204% of the variance and four sample-specific tourist-consumer profiles. Food-related dimensions varied across the profiles; in one profile, gastronomy was associated mainly with cultural and territorial experience rather than with specifically food-related destination-choice criteria. Pro-environmental beliefs, environmental attitudes, and food safety and sustainability behaviour were not fully aligned. The findings support an exploratory and multidimensional interpretation of tourist-consumer heterogeneity and the role of food in tourism. Food-related dimensions should not be treated as interchangeable, and the profiles should be understood as sample-specific configurations rather than stable categories. The results provide preliminary indications for differentiated tourism communication, destination management, and policy initiatives.